You are a jamai of Calcutta. Have you witnessed Durga Puja here?

I have not seen Durga Puja! But this time I’ll get to see as I am coming back to Calcutta later this week for a corporate event. (Smiles) In fact, The Telegraph has promised they will call me as a judge during Puja one year. I am waiting for that invitation!
 
So, you’ll come with your sons?

Yeah, I want to. My in-laws are here. And the well-kept secret is that the wedding that you saw in 2 States, actually happened in Calcutta, not in Chennai. So, I do intend to bring them (13-year-old twins Ishaan and Shyam) but somehow their school holidays and the Pujas don’t match.
 
Your last novel, One Indian Girl, is back on the stands. So, everything sorted with the plagiarism case because of which your publisher had to halt its sale in May?

Yeah, that goes to show that somebody made false allegations and the court found no reason to stop the book. I stand vindicated. Unfortunately when somebody makes an accusation, it makes much bigger news than when the court finally says that there was nothing in it. I always knew that it was not something I could think of doing, plagiarising someone’s work. It’s not something that I have ever needed to do. And it’s pretty foolish to do it in today’s time. Especially for someone like me, who is so omnipresent on social media. If I copy from an already published book, there will be screenshots of that book and my book. So, it would have been foolish even if I had some grand plan of taking from a published book. I don’t think anybody does that. So, that’s why I am not surprised. It’s just strange that she (the writer who accused him of plagiarism) was making such allegations.
 
 

So a moment of celebration now that it’s back on the stands?

Not only that, it is also on the bestsellers list again! So, that’s nice. It was No. 1 and, of course, it has been almost a year since the book came out and now again it is near the top of the charts. That’s because women have really liked the book. I have met so many people… like this girl from the Taj Bengal staff told me, ‘I have read the book some 20 times and I keep reading it and keep telling my boyfriend to read it.’

It’s a practical feminism kind of book. Maybe it doesn’t have all the answers but it shows the feminist dilemma of a common Indian middle-class girl.

Kangana Ranaut had expressed an interest in playing Radhika of One Indian Girl. Any progress?

She launched the book in Mumbai and she even expressed her desire to work in the film but it takes a lot to put a film together. And One Indian Girl is about an international investment banker and yet it is a female-oriented story. It needs the budget, despite not having the traditional male-female lead. And I think that it requires more time to put a film like this one together. One Indian Girl has to be brought together first. And of course if she (Kangana) wants to do it and if the numbers work for the budget and everything….

It’s a character you wrote… so, do you think Kangana fits the bill?

Many girls fit in. I think I would like to believe that the book allows many good actresses to do it. Kangana is one of the top female actresses but so could any of the others. She has wanted to do it, but it is also about the numbers working out.
 
You turned Bollywood producer with Half Girlfriend. What was the experience like? Any lessons learnt?

It was the time of my life, I have had so much fun! Especially working with Mohit (Suri, director). He is a very easy-going person. It was a great experience... however, there are lessons. I think the film didn’t do as well as we would have liked, for a combination of factors.

Firstly, the box office (collection) was more decent than what’s being happening this year. I think, what we have to understand is that it is becoming harder to get people into theatres in general. Look at 2017, barring a few big films like Bahubali, the overall trend is that a lot of films are doing much less business than they used to. I think that’s because of digital entertainment options available on the mobile.

So, you have to be very careful about the budget now. The production cost has to come down. That I think is one very big lesson for us.

Then, I think the Indian audience is ready for more realism. In fact, the films that have done well have higher realism. We ended up making a film which was more Bollywood, more filmi.

And the last is I think somewhere down the line you just pray that you don’t launch a film when a film like Bahubali is in the theatres! We came when Bahubali was in the theatres and I think that obviously affected (the box-office collections). Every film is a learning experience. Apart from that it was really good.
 
Campus forms the heart of many of your books. So, is it still special when you come back to a campus?

I am very excited about convocations. I was one of those students who you would not ever see on stage (grins). I never thought I will ever be on stage for a convocation speech! I was one of those students who was somehow scraping through IIT, just couldn’t wait for college to get over. So, actually to come and tell bushy-tailed and bright-eyed kids how to face the world is very exciting for me.

I think The Bhawanipur College is a very established and old college of Calcutta. It’s a big honour to come and do this. Because Navratri is coming, I am going to tell them nine things. I am 43 now, I’ve rounded it off to 45… what did I learn every five years.
 
Any special campus memory that is close to your heart?

Everything has been converted into books, movies, screenplays (laughs). And what has not been converted into all these is probably not legal. So, I can’t really talk about it (laughs out loud).

Samabrita Sen
Which writer would you want to invite to your campus?
Tell t2@abp.in